Help Fund Fair Trade LED Crochet “Frisbee” on Kickstarter

Three things that I think are cool are coming together in one place: Kickstarter funding, fair trade crochet and LED light Frisbees. A company called Pocket Disc is looking to raise $50,000 in funding to create a new product called a LunaDisc. The LunaDisc is a crochet thing similar to a Frisbee that can be used day or night because it’s lit up with LED lights. It’s handcrafted by Mayan artisans who receive a fair wage for their work.

The History of the Pocket Disc

So until I saw this Kickstarter project, I hadn’t even heard of the Pocket Disc so I’m guessing maybe you haven’t either. Basically, the story goes that Patrick, founder of Pocket Disc, has a young daughter who crocheted a doily that sat on their end table for a long time. Pocket Disc co-founder picked it up one day and tossed it at Patrick. An error in the stitch work had created a small lip around the edge of the doily so when the disc was tossed it acted basically like a Frisbee does. The Pocket Disc was born and reportedly more than a quarter of a million people now have these crocheted Frisbees at home.

Fair Trade for the LunaDisc

The LunaDisc is a new product from The Pocket Disc makers. It’s still the same soft thread crochet disc but it’s been enhanced with LED lights, which are crocheted right into the disc. You can use it outside at night because you can still see it. And you can use it in indoors in a dark room for what I imagine would be a Rave-Style effect in your home. (A benefit of these discs over Frisbees is that they’re soft so they can be thrown in the house without damage to anything or anyone.)

The Pocket Disc people already work with handcrafters in small villages using Fair Trade practices. Approximately 400 Mayan artisans in Mexico receive a fair wage for handcrafting the discs out of crochet thread. The hope is that the LunaDisc will be even more popular and will allow the company to double the number of artisans that they work with. These artisans are supporting their families while carrying on the tradition of handcrafting. (I’ve been getting increasingly interested in fair trade crochet; I wrote about it for Crochetvolution, did a recent post on Brazilian pop tab crochet and will be continuing to tell you more and more about this as I continue to research it.)

The Kickstarter Project

I really like Kickstarter. If you haven’t used it, basically people put their project ideas out there and if you believe in the project then you can put your money where your belief is and support the project with a pledge. You get something related to the project in exchange. For example, I chose to donate $25 to the LunaDisc project so if they reach their funding goal I’ll get my own LunaDisc in a limited edition design.

The LunaDisc guys are trying to raise $50,000 through Kickstarter. The money goes towards buying the materials to make the discs. (Materials have to be provided up front to fair trade artisans.) If you happen to have $5000 to pledge then you’ll be considered a VIP backer and you’ll get to go on a five day trip for two to Guatemala to meet the artisans. But you can back this project starting at as little as just $1.